Easiest Internet Option In A Tiny Home

Let's talk about the Internet in Tiffany. The Internet is considered a basic utility in homes now, you can not even apply for a job without an email. With my job, a lighting sales representative, I need to have solid Internet in order to send emails and contact my customers, so it's important to me to have a great Internet connection at all times. 

Many moons ago I worked in the cell phone industry for T-mobile and quickly found out how much faster the Internet from a hotspot can be compared to the crappy big companies out there. For our situation, we didn't want to drill something into Tiffany and we also needed an option to have multiple devices to hook up to it and enough data to be able to binge-watch Netflix. Since we'll be living in a somewhat rural area away from a big city, we decided Verizon was our best option compared to other coverage from T-mobile and AT&T.

While at Verizon we asked about a hotspot with unlimited data and were quickly told yes. As usual, this is not what it seems to be as advertised. You can have unlimited 4G LTE data BUT Verizon does say if you're a heavy user, after 10gb of data they may prioritize your connection. Which means that you might have your connection slowed down to 3G speeds. We haven't experienced this yet, but the fact is always in the back of my mind.

We were told that the jetpacks could hook up to 5-10 devices. Not that we are going to need more than that but with Tiffany's Lutron system we needed to make sure that we had an Ethernet hook on the device. We looked at the hardware in the stores and nothing had the Ethernet port we needed to be built in the unit. 

I decided to talk to my buddy Paul, who works at Verizon. He referred me to Verizon LTE router T114. I would highly suggest that instead of buying from Verizon that you buy online, we found Amazon to be the cheapest, or Verizon will lock you into a two-year contract to sell you the hardware at the same price of around $49.

Let's talk about this bad boy. 

It sits about 7'' tall and 3'' wide. On the back, it has four Ethernet ports, Two landline ports (who still even has a landline?), an AC port to plug into the wall, and two adapters for external antennas if need be. The unit does have a battery back up that last up to 33 hours of standby time if the power goes out or if you are on the move! It has a super easy touch key OLED navigation screen and can be hooked up to 20 devices. Overall, feels like I got a solid piece of hardware for a decent price. For data plans, we needed an unlimited data plan since we need it to binge-watch the Office twice a year.

The overall experience seems to be great. Netflix streams great, Lutron system, and Alexa works as normal and emails and website load well.  

All this being said, the overall experience with the Verizon router is positive. I think this is a great option for tiny homes or RV's since it gives you the freedom and flexibility of an LTE hotspot, but set up more like a  conventional home Internet experience without all the cords and holes.

-Tim

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